Some athletes seem to have been around for ever. Certainly the career of the Jamaican-turned-Slovenian sprinter, Merlene Ottey, has now entered its fourth decade. Today Ottey, aged 50, will be the oldest athlete to have competed at the European Championships, should she be selected to anchor her adopted country's 4x100m relay team.

The landmark will be yet another in the career of one of the greatest sprinters in history. Since Ottey won her first international medal at the Olympic Games in Moscow 30 years ago – a bronze in the 200m – she has broken record after record. Fourth on the all‑time list for 100m and third for 200m, her cabinet boasts nine Olympic medals – the most for a track and field athlete – and 14 world championship medals, the most by any female athlete. The list goes on: claiming the 200m title at the 1995 world championships made her the world's oldest track gold medallist, while winning a relay silver and 100m bronze medal in Sydney made her the oldest Olympic athletics medallist.

With a season best of 11.77sec she is also the proud holder of the over-50s 100m world record, a long way off her personal best of 10.74 while running for Jamaica in 1996, but a time that helped her to second in the Slovenian trials and one that would have placed her sixth at the Great Britain trials. More than respectable for someone twice the age of most of her competitors.

Even if she should be chosen to anchor the Slovenian team home, their chances of making it through to tomorrow's finals, let alone winning a medal, remain slim but now based in Ljubliana she shows no sign of chucking out her running shoes just yet. Ever competitive and ambitious, Ottey set her sights on making the line-up for Barcelona, in what will be her second appearance at the European event since changing nationalities in 2002.

How, though, is someone evidently past their physical peak even able to carry on competing at this level? Richard Davison, a professor of exercise physiology at Edinburgh Napier University, does not believe there is any scientific reason – Ottey is simply an exception rather than the rule. "There is no research to suggest that we can slow down the ageing process through exercise. However, if you keep fit and flexible then in some cases it is clearly possible to still be at a high level," Davison said. "You can get away with age a bit more in the relay though. Running the last leg will help too as the ability to make fast starts is lost when you get older.

"But she isn't operating anywhere near close to her personal best or even what she was doing 10 years ago. The body just doesn't recover as quickly when you get older. Just look at Lance Armstrong. He has struggled on his comeback in the Tour de France and it is clear that his body has struggled to keep up with the demands."

Nonetheless, like Ottey and Armstrong, there have been many sporting greats who have refused to let age dictate to them, from Martina Navratilova, who returned to tennis in her mid-40s, to Stanley Matthews, who played top‑level football into his 50s.

Even in athletics Ottey is not alone. At 39 Germany's Franka Dietzsch took the discus title at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, following in the footsteps of Ellina Zvereva of Belarus who won world gold in the throwing disipline in Edmonton in 2001, aged 40. And Israeli runner Ayele Setegne completed the marathon at the 2008 Olympics. He finished 69th in a time of 2 hours and 30 minutes -- impressive for a 53-year-old.

The woman Ottey will succeed as the oldest competitor at the European Games was a marathon runner – Nicole Brakebusch-Leveque, who took part in the 1998 championships in Budapest at 47. However, such longevity is almost unheard of in sprinting as muscle mass is harder to maintain as the body gets older.

The big question is how Ottey motivates herself to carry on, so far below her peak. "The mental factor plays a big part in sport with older athletes. When you have been there and done it motivation can be tougher," Davison said. "But you also have experience and know how to peak mentally and physically. And most importantly you know what it takes, and feels like, to win."